Leareth Bound
by PurplePenguin2
Summary: The herd followed her silently, keeping the others in check as they approached the small rise that hid the clan...
1. Default Chapter

"Elith! Bring the horses in!" A slim, exotic looking woman called to her 14 year old fosterling from the family's tent. "And don't give me that look, you're old enough now to handle them just fine!" Elith sighed and finished braiding her silky, black hair, her mother's legacy, and stood. Such a beautiful night, Star Eyed was definitely watching the over the rolling Dhorisha plains this evening, with the stars blinking like perfect diamonds in the velvety black sky.  
  
The fine, Shin'a'in horses were currently grazing lightly as two great, iron hued war mares stood guard over the herd. She looked to the mares wistfully. Someday, if she wasn't popping out babies like her dear foster mother, she would be a fine Shin'a'in warrior. The mares watched her icily. Although they knew her they weren't the friendliest war steeds, making them perfect for the task given. Their long tails swished slightly as the flies swarmed around their hind quarters with a faint buzzing sound.  
  
"Go on, round them up, I'll help." Elith crooned, the mares bobbed their heads and proceeded to round up the horses. Out of all the pintos, appaloosas and other breeds of horse found in the herd, her favourite was the jet black stallion that had showed up a few days ago. He had icy blue eyes and grandther had told her the horse was probably stone deaf, but she loved it anyways.  
  
The stallion in question gazed at her warmly and she felt as if he could speak to her, like she had pretended when she was a little girl. She had sat in the midst of all these magnificent horses, playing with them, telling them her secrets. She had pretended she was a noble Herald, just like her great, great aunt Kerowyn. The other children of the clan called her names sometimes, and she was shunned because of her silver eyes and pale skin. But she didn't care, they were all stuck up anyways. The only clan children of the plains she had ever met that were actually stuck up were the ones of this new foster clan.  
  
The Tay'a'indra clan was very strict and 'appropriate'. They didn't allow just anyone into their clan. No. The only reason she had been allowed in the clan as a fosterling was because her mother had been a formidable woman, and a descendant of Herald Vanyel. Her father was a descendant of Kerowyn's and the family reeked of magic. She was the only one of them who had not been slain for her power that night, for she had none, but she wouldn't think upon that now, the horses needed to be in nearer to the gathering of large, brightly coloured tents.  
  
The mares followed her silently, keeping the others in check as they approached the small rise that hid the clan from view. They topped it and disaster filled young Elith's eyes. All the tents were on fire and bandits ravaged the people. They took many things as she watched them, including many women and children's virginity. She backed away slowly, one step at a time. The war steeds to one look at the ensuing chaos and trumpeted, beginning to charge. But the beautiful black stallion swung around and and nipped them on the neck. They looked startled and then started obeying his whinnying order to follow. Elith looked to him, lost for words then he charged past her and she instinctively reached up and mounterd him as he ran past and swung around to face the herd. He trumpeted once more and they all dashed after him, their glossy coats reflecting the flames of what was her newfound clan. 


	2. Chapter 2

Elith woke up with a gasp of pain and then the feeling of falling and a new bruise upon her back. The horses had stopped suddenly during their all night run from disaster. The black stallion looked down at her, a worried expression on his face. :Are you ok?: A warm, masculine voice asked from within the void of pain in her pounding skull. She sat up and scrambled, backwards, away from the horse. :No, I'm not a horse, I'm some sort of damned Companion.: The stallion muttered unhappily to her. She stared at him, wide eyed as some of the pintos look at him lazily, then went back to grazing.   
  
"Who are you and what are you going to do to me?" Elith asked calmly, trying to figure this all out.   
  
:I used to be a being called Ma'ar, the most powerful and apparently evil mage in the world: He chuckles and sighs. :Ah, those were the days...: She stared at the stallion and he coughed in a horsish manner. :Yes, even though Firesong K'Valdemar came and destroyed most of my spirit I still survived and came back as this.: He snorted. :Now I shall be known as Leareth again and you shall be my Herald of darkness. Doing my bidding and such.:  
  
Now it was Elith's turn to snort. "Come on...you can't be Ma'ar and I'm not doing your bidding. You shall do mine...wait a minute...I'm talking to a horse." She started to giggle foolishly, good thing too. Leareth had started to worry the memory loop hadn't worked.   
  
He watched her then snapped. :Look! I'm not a horse, I'm Leareth!!!:  
  
She stopped giggling for a moment and really looked at him, but with a newborn perspective. Leareth reeked with a black, shimmering aura..and there was something in the sky above that looked like a blue flame. She shut her eyes a moment then opened them again, seeing the physical Leareth and what was a large forestgyre in the sky above. Leareth followed her gaze to the forestgyre and swore colourfully in her mind. "What? What's wrong?" She asked him.  
  
:Hawkbrothers, I brought us out near the Tayledras forest.: He muttered, cursing again.  
  
"And thats-" She started but he hushed her. :This is a bad thing?: She asked, surprising herself slightly. :Keycha! I can talk mind to mind:  
  
:Yes yes, fascinating: Leareth muttered as she climbed onto his velvet soft back. :We'll leave the herd here and go into the forest. If we roam with the wolves..: He trailed off into silence. She nodded and they bolted off into the forest.  
  
Hawkbrother Starwing K'Treva woke up to a hertasi maid tending to his fevered brow. He smiled to the hertasi and coughed. She smiled "Ah, master Starwing, you're finally awake." Ayshka hissed. Starwing looked to the ceiling.  
  
"How long have I been asleep?" He asked her weakly.  
  
"6 days m'lord" She chuckles. "And you really needed those 6 days." Starwing grimaced and sat up. Ayshka stood back and tappped her foot impatiently. He looked to her.  
  
"What? I need to be out and about...Father will be needing me at any moment" The young, handsome Tayledras teenager said soothingly to the lizard like hertasi. She shook her head, clucking her tongue.  
  
"Get your blue eyes and white haired head out of here, and I don't want to see you going off to braid your owl's feather's into any young ladies hair now, either" She scolded as he headed out the door smiling.   
  
:Mip?: He called out.  
  
:Here.: Came the reply as his large, white, eagle owl flew over to him. He burried his face in the owl's chest feathers while scratching Mip's head. Mip huurrred happily then he pulled back. "Nice to be back on my feet." He said happily as she nibbled his finger tips gently.  
  
"Starwing?" A tall, white haired man calls from below. "Come on, the scouts need us to check out some wolf dens, they don't know what's wrong with the beasts"  
  
"Coming father." Starwing replied and hurried down the ekele ladder as Mip took off.  
  
Springfall watched his son with pride. No illness could hold anyone in his family down, and a good thing he woke up today, a cold drake nest had been found near a cluster of wolf dens. Father and son quickly made their way out of the Vale and towards the wolf dens. A cold feeling set it's spell upon the air around the dens as they arrived. It was deffinatly cold drakes.  
  
"Starwing, be careful..." Springfall turned around. "Starwing?" The young Master was nowhere to be found, but a soft trilling made him turn around. In front of him stood a single cold drake, not big enough to be the queen but big enough to be a drone. He lashed out at it and burned it to a crisp. In the distance a louder trilling could be heard and a yell. He stumbled out of the clearing, 'searching' for his son. He picked up nothing...that was strange. He told himself calmly not to panic and rushed back to the Vale.  
  
Elith rode through the forest quietly on Leareth, contemplating their renegade future, or what supposedly would be a renegade future. A yell rang out through the forest and she urged Leareth towards it. He snorted and tried to shy awy. :Come on..we have to help..please?: Elith pleaded with her new friend, sending him a picture of her with a puppy dog look upon her fragile face. He snorted again and laughed in a horsish manner.  
  
:Fine...just make sure we aren't seen.: He relented. She patted his neck and thanked him quietly, as he bolted off towards the cries. They entered a clearing where a queen cold drake stood over a white haired boy of about 16. Leareth snorted and the cold drake looked up, hissing. The boy scrambled away but the cold drake saw him and went after him.  
  
:Do something.: Leareth growls and Elith nods mutely, releasing her dorment powers with the help of the rogue Companion. Her head started to pound painfully, but something was happeneing, the cold drake was rising in the air, frantically trilling and hissing. It started to bounce, painfully, across the ground, hitting shar rocks and dead branches. The boy winced, watching it, and then, with a final blow to an especially hard and sharp rock the cold drake was impaled and died instantly. :Quick! The boy!: Leareth hissed. She looked at the boy and he fainted dead away. She toppled off of Leareth's back, unconcious but he dragged her into one of the wolf dens, then hid himself in the woods quietly...falling asleep. 


End file.
